New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to declassify Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s files has stirred up yet another controversy. Some of the documents accessed by CNN-IBN Kolkata bureau chief Sougata Mokhopadhyay suggest that there is no official proof about Netaji’s alleged death in Taipei plane crash in 1945. In a letter to Netaji's family in 1949, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had said that he could still be alive and the Indian intelligence agencies also knew about this.
Even four years after his reported death in a plane crash, British and American intelligence agencies thought that Bose was behind every communist uprising in South East Asia.
These agencies held that Bose was undergoing training in Russia to emerge as another former Yugoslavia president Josip Broz Tito, Bulgarian communist leader Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov or the founding father of People's Republic of China Mao Tse-tung also known as Mao Zedong, when the Marxist hour struck India.
The best brains of the Anglo-American security services reportedly failed to provide slightest evidence in confirmation of the story of Bose's death in a plane crash and his subsequent cremation with full military honours in Tokyo.
Conspiracy Theories Over Netaji’s ‘Disappearance’
In his much acclaimed, brilliant book on Netaji’s ‘disappearance’ ‘India’s Biggest Cover-up’ author and journalist Anuj Dhar exposes many lies of the government and the Congress party over the ‘death’ of Netaji. He writes “Have you lately been tormented by the fate that befell Subhas Chandra Bose? Could you picture him as a captive in a Siberian gulag, while he is presumed dead by fellow Indians? India's biggest nightmare involving the biggest names isn't over as yet. The recent inquiry of Mukherjee Commission confirmed that the story of Netaji's death in a plane crash was a camouflage for his escape to the Soviet Russia. And what was the Government's reaction to this finding of a reputed ex-judge of the Supreme Court of India? Steeped in premeditated views, they summarily dismissed it. And not many voices were raised.
Doesn't this outrage you? Is this the way to handle the matter of the life and death of the man Gandhiji called 'Prince among Patriots'? Is passage of time any excuse for condoning gross injustice? After what Subhas did for us, wouldn't we be displaying ungratefulness taking things lying down?
Oh, don't you think this concerns Bose only. Modern India's longest running political controversy has had some terrible spillovers. If a shiver hasn't gone down your spine already, see this old clipping:
“Shyam Lal Jain, the confidential secretary of Asaf Ali, who was the secretary to INA Defence Committee told the Khosla Commission under oath that on 26 or 27 December 1945 he was summoned to Ali's residence by Nehru. Jain alleged that Pandit Nehru had asked him make typed copies of a hand- written note that said Bose had reached Russia via Diren. He also alleged that Pandit Nehru asked him to type a letter to British Prime Minister Atlee that "Bose, your war criminal, has been allowed to enter Russian territory by Stalin. This is a clear treachery and betrayal of faith by Russians, as Russia has been an ally of the British-Americans. Please take note of it and do what you consider proper and fit." Though this information was not challenged before the Commission, Justice Khosla chose not to attach any importance to it. One wonders why?
BJP leader and former union law & commerce minister Dr. Subramanian Swamy also makes similar claims over Netaji’s disappearance and blames Nehru for planting the ‘death’ theory. He claims that above mentioned things have been submitted to Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry in the form of an affidavit.
Justice MK Mukherjee Commission was set up by the NDA government headed by AB Vajpayee to investigate the ‘death’ mystery of Netaji. Commenting on this, Anuj Dhar writes “Then twist in the tale came. Justice Mukherjee submitted his report to Home Minister in November 2005, concluding that there was no air crash, Netaji flew towards the USSR and the ashes kept in the Renkoji Temple were of a Japanese soldier. Logically speaking, this vindicated the stand taken by three successive governments, viz, United Front, NDA and the Congress, which was firmly in the saddle when the government counsel made the above submissions. So, don't you think that there was some sort of partisan politics during the Vajpayee era. The BJP seems to be in unison with the Congress over the Subhas Bose death case. That's why you haven't heard anything on this matter from their senior leaders, with the notable exception of Dr Murli Manohar Joshi.
Coming back to the moot point, the government took more than 7 months to study the report and did a somersault. They rejected the main finding in a single line and, in a way, asserted that Netaji had died following an air crash in Taipei, and the ashes in Renkoji temple were indeed his. The nation was not told what new information had come their way in those months warranting them to change their-long standing stance supported by the finding of a commission of inquiry appointed by them following a court order”.
Mysterious Disappearance of Netaji Papers from Moscow
A report in ‘The Times of India’ published a few years ago also confirms the same theory about the disappearance of Netaji. The report stated that clinching documents that could have proved without doubt that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose had been present in Russia post-1945 had "mysteriously vanished" from the Russian archives before the Mukherjee Commission went there for its probe, said Rathin Maharaj, the in-charge of the Ramakrishna Mission's Moscow chapter, in an exclusive interview with TOI.
The report said “The monk feels the inquiry might have lost its sting without these papers. The monk had said that he had knowledge of the fact that the leader had spent his last years in misery in a Siberian prison. These documents were there in the Russian archives and had been examined by researchers," the monk said. "One of the researchers, who interacted with me regularly in Moscow, was convinced that they pointed at a conspiracy theory, apart from the fact that Netaji had been lodged in a prison in Siberia. When the Mukherjee Commission went through the documents, the papers had vanished. They had been taken out. These documents were there in the Russian archives and had been examined by researchers," the monk said. "One of the researchers, who interacted with me regularly in Moscow, was convinced that they pointed at a conspiracy theory, apart from the fact that Netaji had been lodged in a prison in Siberia. When the Mukherjee Commission went through the documents, the papers had vanished. They had been taken out. A particular Russian researcher who had "strong evidence" of the leader's presence in Russia after 1945 — after the supposed air crash in Taihoku — refused to appear before the commission in Moscow , the monk said. "This gentleman is a veteran scholar and a long-time Netaji researcher. I have seen his articles in a Moscow newspaper and they were enlightening and full of startling facts. But he refused to appear before the commission," said the monk, whose monastic name is Jyotiranand Maharaj.
The same TOI report claims that a Russian researcher Liliana Malkova, now in Belur Math, agreed with him though she didn't subscribe to the Siberian prison theory. It was a possibility, but chances of Netaji actually being lodged in a prison were remote, she said. "Other than an undated and an uncaptioned photograph at the Moscow state archive, there is no record of Netaji's presence in Russia. No prison record has his name. So, I believe Netaji was either killed in Russia or managed to escape, went into hiding somewhere and spent his last years in disguise," said Malkova. Researchers, she added, had gone through Russian archives and KGB secret files extensively between 1987 and 1996. "That was the post-Perestroika period, when files were thrown open. Even though it is impossible to scan all of them, some like Purabi Roy have worked on them intensively. But they have drawn a blank so far as clinching evidence is concerned," she said.
Conspiracy at the Top
In a scathing article for ‘The Sunday Guardian’ journalist Madhav Nalapat writes that sources familiar with the facts within India and Russia, claim privately that "the reason for such a refusal to disclose more information was not to protect the national interest, as much as it was to protect the reputation of high officials and politicians, who connived at a cover-up designed to protect the reputation of the British and Soviet governments in office at the time from public anger in India, besides global public opinion". According to these sources, "the situation (vis-a-vis) Netaji Subhas Bose was resolved in a conclusive way by Stalin", the inference being obvious when judged in the context of the fact that the leader of the Indian National Army was never seen or heard from after the date of the alleged "air crash".
Taiwanese authorities have stated to this correspondent that to the best of their information, there exist no records of any crash at the airbase in question, on the date specified as being the final day of the life of Netaji Subhas Bose. Instead, they say that witnesses to the flight confirmed that the aircraft took off in a normal fashion and was bound for an airfield in Manchuria which on that date (18 August 1945) was under the occupation of Soviet forces, which had invaded the territory in force after Emperor Hirohito of Japan announced the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, in order to spare his people further pain after the obliteration of Nagasaki and Hiroshima a short while previously by the dropping of atomic bombs.
Sources based in Russia (erstwhile Soviet Union) claim that "the aircraft landed safely in a Manchurian airbase" and that the former president of the Congress party was "taken custody of by Soviet troops and security personnel" and "flown to Moscow". According to them, Bose was taken away to a gulag within 17 months of internment in a security prison in Moscow, and passed away 11 years later. They add that the Soviet leaders, who came after Stalin, kept the circumstances of Netaji Subhas Bose's capture and passing secret "out of a desire to ensure good relations with India".
Only an examination of records in London and Moscow on the basis of an official request by the Narendra Modi government would reveal the truth, or otherwise, of this assertion (assuming that these be accurate and not doctored in a cover-up bid). But the same sources claim that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was asked by UK Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin through Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to "ensure that Bose never returned to India and was never heard from again". According to them, "because of Bose's policy of collaboration with Germany under Hitler and Japan under Tojo, the Soviet dictator saw him as an enemy" and therefore presumably did not need much persuasion in carrying out the British request.
There are reports of the then ambassador of India to the USSR, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, having a meeting with Netaji Subhas Bose in a prison near Moscow soon after taking charge at the embassy in 1949. However, till his death, the scholar, who subsequently became President of India (in 1962), refused to comment on such reports. Interestingly, both Netaji's close associate Lt Col Habibur Rehman, as well as his widow Emilie, refused, to the close of their respective lives, to assent to the repeated requests of Government of India that he had died in an air crash and to affirm that the ashes brought back to India were Netaji's. Interestingly, although DNA matching of these ashes could confirm whether they indeed were those of the disappeared leader, thus far this does not seem to have been attempted.
What is clear is that if Subhas Bose had returned to India, rather than either been killed in an air crash or gone permanently missing, he would have easily been the most popular leader in the country, and could quite possibly have displaced Mahatma Gandhi's favourite, Jawaharlal Nehru, from the effective leadership of the Congress party and consequently the Prime Ministership. Given the fact that Netaji attracted both Muslims and Hindus to his fold in like manner, there is a high probability that a Bose-led Congress could have checkmated the plans of both Whitehall as well as MA Jinnah to partition India. The INA was a completely secular force, with patriots from all communities joining out of admiration for Netaji.
Certainly, his return to the political arena would have upset the plans of the British, who saw Bose as a formidable foe of their empire and indeed, the entire system of governance they had constructed over the centuries in India, a system retained almost in its entirety by Jawaharlal Nehru and his successors, and which continues to this day, making India in effect an administrative dictatorship, which holds periodic elections, bringing to office those wielding such authoritarian powers, argues Madhav Nalapat.
Was Gumnami Baba, the Real Netaji?
According to a report on the website ‘Drishti’ by Desh Kapoor Gumnami Baba who died in 1985 was indeed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in ‘disguise’. He narrates the death of the mysterious saint in following words. He writes “On the night of 19 September, 1985 a body wrapped in tricolor was moved out of Ram Bhavan, a house in front of the circuit house. It was accompanied by 13 people including Dr. RP Mishra, Dr. Priyabrat Bannerjee and Saraswati Devi Shukla. Another man Ram Kishore Panda had been looking after Bhagwanji, the saint who had just died. He cried out as the pyre was lit on the banks of Saryu at the Guptar Ghat – a place where Lord Ram was supposed to have shed his body. “We are only 13 to see him off on his last journey, there should have been 13 lakh!” 24 boxes full of Gumnami Baba’s belongings have been kept at the Faizabad Treasury. They contain “round frame spectacles, Belgian typewriters, many newspapers of pre-independence and post-independence time with Baba’s comments scribbled on them, boxes full of books of international relevance, several books gifted by ‘sister’, cigars from Germany and Italy, and some huge-size family photographs.”
All the people there were however sure of one thing – the person cremated at Guptar Ghat that night was none other than Subhash Bose. What did he do until then? How did he move out of Soviet Russia?
Bhagwanji, or Gumnami Baba, gave a hint on when he moved out of Russia and what happened thereafter. He would once say that he was in the Russian gulag as a prisoner and moved out of Russia in 1949. Thereafter, he was engaged in “covert activities to counter world powers, especially America’s, clout in Asia.”
Author Desh Kapoor gives following five reasons to buttress his claims on Netaji. According to him forensic evidence based on the teeth recovered from Gumnami Baba’s assets, handwriting both in English and Bangla were examined by a top expert and said to match that of Netaji’s. He claims that the government appointed ‘experts’ acted suspiciously and gave wishy-washy reports and refused to come to the Mukherjee Commission for questioning.
In the words of Anuj Dhar three handwriting experts checked Baba’s handwriting. The first among them was B Lal, a former Chief Examiner of Questioned Documents – the highest post for a handwriting expert in government. B Lal is a legendary figure in the field and one of the best. That’s why he was initially approached by then Hindustan Times journalist Anuj Dhar, now with Mission Netaji. After B Lal gave a positive report, he was hired by the Mukherjee Commission and made available a large number of samples from both sides. B Lal gave a descriptive, first rate report backed by loads of exhibits. He duly appeared before the Commission when summoned and made his case brilliantly. The other two reports were given by then Chief Examiner of Questioned Documents and state government expert. A look at the state government expert’s report would convince anyone of its fraudulent nature. While giving report, a handwriting expert is supposed to state reasons (as B Lal did) for the conclusions.
The central government report gave some reasons as their report first admitted that there were similarities in the handwriting and then changed tack in the end. That they were not sure of their ground was clear from the fact that they did not appear before the commission in Delhi where their former boss B Lal was also present at the time of hearing. Though located in Shimla, they chose to go all the way to Calcutta to depose.
The government acted in a similar manner in terms of the DNA evidence when the teeth of Bhagwanji were examined. The government appointed officials gave conflicting and inconclusive reports and then refused to be cross-examined. There were two different DNA tests performed on some teeth presumed to be of Bhagwanji. While the Hyderabad lab gave an inconclusive report, the CFSL Kolkata report was negative. It is to be noted that for some reason the expert who supervised the DNA tests was not willing to appear before commission. He did so only after repeated summons.
It must be stressed here that Mukherjee Commission report criticized government of India for not cooperating with it. In fact the report said that certain actions/inactions of the government “put a spoke in the wheel of this inquiry”. An independent and private investigator to probe into the DNA evidence was needed, which unfortunately did not happen in case of the Mukherjee Commission.
Secondly Dr Priyabrat Bannerjee was one of those 13 who saw Bhagwanji alias Gumnami Baba on his last journey. He was – along with his family – in touch with Bhagwanji in his last years, after Saraswati Devi had come looking for his father Dr TC Bannerjee – a Homeopathic doctor – to take care of a patient who wanted to remain anonymous. In a video, Dr. Priyabrat Bannerjee explains the meetings with Bhagwanji and why he – and his family are convinced that Bhagwanji was indeed Netaji Subhash Bose himself. The third most important evidence is the admission of many prominent in India who have stated publicly from time to time that Gumnami Baba was indeed Netaji Bose. Among them the most important of them being Ms. Leela Roy, a close associate of Netaji. She was in regular touch with Bhagwanji as her letters to him and his letters back to her show. Based on the letters from the property of Bhagwanji, the following comes out clearly.
First, from December 1954 to April 1957 Dr Sampurnanand, the then Chief Minister of UP was in touch with Bhagawanji and he paid for his expenses. In 1962 Leela Roy established contacts with Bhagwanji and sent him the items required by him. On 25 March 1963, Bhagwanji told a person called Srikant Sharma to convey to Leela Roy: “My coming out is not in country’s interest. It would not do anyone any good if I emerged now.”
On 3 April 1967, Samar Guha raised the issue on the floor of Parliament. Subsequently, a memorandum signed by 350 MPs was sent to the President of India to make a fresh probe into the Netaji mystery. As a result, the GD Khosla Commission was constituted. Witnesses expressed that Netaji was present in Amarkantaka, Madhya Pradesh during 27 September to 2 October 1968 and in Mainpuri, UP during February – March 1969. In 1970, Bhagwanji paid homage to Leela Roy through a letter. The handwriting on this letter exactly matches with that of Netaji. Leela Roy was in constant touch with Bhagwanji during 1963 to 1970 till her death.
On 28 August 1978, Prime Minister Morarji Desai rejected the conclusion of the Shah Nawaz Committee and the Khosla Commission about Netaji’s death in August 1945 in Parliament based on “further contemporary documentary evidence” received by the government. On 6 July 1983, on the occasion of the re-release of Samar Guha’s book “Netaji: Dead or Alive”, Morarji Desai said in a gathering openly that “Bose is alive and has taken sanyas”. Justice MK Mukherjee, the former Supreme Court judge who led the Justice Mukherjee Commission Investigation (JMCI) into the mystery of Netaji’s life and death, made a remark in Bengali off-the-camera, though the camera was inadvertently recording. He said that “he is 100% sure” that Bhagwanji of Faizabad was Netaji in disguise.
According to Desh Kapoor, what is irrefutable in the whole Netaji mystery is that the Government of India was busy indulging in subterfuge with respect to the whole issue of Netaji’s death. As late as the 1970s, while the GD Khosla Committee was at work, many files pertaining to Netaji were destroyed.
Desh Kapoor: That Netaji did not die in an air crash in Taiwan is a rock solid truth as is the fact that he was in Russia right after that. Now, if indeed he had been killed by the Russians in 1950, as many believe so, then why was the Indian Government going after every piece of news on Netaji well into the 70s and 80s? Why was his family under surveillance? This is what Anuj Dhar says on how the Indian Government, along with the Intelligence Bureau created fake stories and babas to de-legitimize the true existence of Netaji at that time. By throwing in fake “babas” and disproving them it was easy to brush aside the true story there was. The one person who was in touch with everyone who was related to Netaji in any way. Bhagwanji alias Gumnami Baba.
Desh Kapoor: The sadhu baba stories were planted by the government with the twin purpose of diluting the Russian angle and trivilising the entire issue. The game started in early 1960s with Shoulmari baba. BN Mullick, the famed Director of Intelligence Bureau and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s right hand man, was behind it. I am led to believe that our government does have a good idea about the case. Two, there was something fishy about the sadhu of Shoulmari. The fellow who was said to be the administrator of the Shoulmari ashram was possibly an Intelligence Bureau officer. And, I can’t help notice that the propagators of Shoulmari and other babas evidently had no insight into Netaji’s disappearance from Saigon. While countering the plane crash theory, which they had to, these people lifted arguments of Professor Samar Guha, who used to frequent Bhagwanji. Shoulmari and other babas also skipped the Russian angle, which I think is a reality so far as Netaji’s going there is concerned.
Desh Kapoor: Bhagwanji called the Shoulmari subterfuge a “parallel bluff” and talked about “his” escaping to the USSR via Diren in Manchuria after a “concocted air crash”. He made an allegation about a top Azad Hind government minister – which rings true if we look at still classified records. It was rather intriguing for a holy man to talk about the functioning of prisons camps in Siberia. He gave out more details which appear to be the reasons why he could not come out. One gets goose pimples thinking should they turn out to be true.
Desh Kapoor: I fail to understand one thing: If indeed Netaji had been killed in the USSR in early 1950s, and some agency set up fake babas early 1960s onwards, what purpose would it have served? Why would the government, which allegedly had things to hide, shoot itself in the foot by starting off a frenzy over a dead issue? What did Bhagwanji mean by “parallel bluff”? Why was the Central Intelligence Agency of America receiving dope on Subhas Bose as late as 1964? Didn’t those guys have better things to do?
Some of the arguments made before Khosla Commission were hair-raising. It was charged that the Intelligence Bureau, a bugbear in those days, was on a lookout for information related to Bose. I remember one statement verbatim: “When the Government of India has accepted Shah Nawaz Committee’s report that Netaji is dead then how is it that the Intelligence Department goes after every news when it appears that Netaji is not dead and he is alive?”
Exactly 70 years ago, Netaji Bose disappeared from the public life. Even today very few accept the theory that Netaji died in an air crash. The mystery surrounding Netaji has been the biggest political controversy since 1945. With the new theories emerging almost every year, it is unlikely to reach a logical conclusion. The Central government has the moral and political obligations of putting an end to these rumours. For that it needs to come out with hard facts on Netaji’s life post 1945.
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